Section VII of Sharing the Gift offers a number of excellent suggestions for making your faith more prominent in your day to day life. Still, for many people it is intimidating to think about how exactly we can proclaim the Gospel to family members, neighbors and co-workers. We offer this simple advice: Just try something! Push yourself outside your comfort zone and try something new! The Lord will be so pleased with any attempt you make to bring others into deeper relationship with him, however successful or unsuccessful that attempt turns out.
Consider praying as you begin to read the letter. Use the study guide questions (the Tabs below) that accompany each question. Remember to go at your own pace. When you are finished, pray again and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you on how to respond to the call to evangelize.
Ground rules for approaching evangelization as an individual:
HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF EVANGELIZATION EFFORTS IN OUR DIOCESE
1559 - Spanish colonists led by Tristán de Luna y Arellano, accompanied by five Dominican priests and a lay brother, arrived in Pensacola. The first Mass was offered on August 15, 1559. This is regarded by most historians as the first documented Mass at an undisputed European settlement in what is now the continental United States. Devastated by a hurricane, the settlement was abandoned two years later.
1573-1674 - From their initial base of St. Augustine, Franciscan missionaries incrementally established communities to educate the native peoples of Northwest Florida in the Catholic faith. Missions San Luis and San Pedro y Pablo de Patale, both located in and around modern Tallahassee, were established in the early 1630s.
1674 - Gabriel Diaz Vara Calderon, bishop of Santiago de Cuba, visited the Franciscan missions in present-day Madison, Jefferson and Leon counties, along the Apalachicola River. He administered the sacrament of confirmation to Native American converts.
1698 - Almost a century and a half after the de Luna expedition, the Catholic presence returns to the area in what is today Pensacola. The Spanish build the Santa Maria de Galve military installation which included a church for the soldiers.
1704 - During Queen Anne’s War between British and Spanish forces across their North American colonies, Antonio Cuipa and his companions are killed by British and Creek soldiers during the destruction of Mission San Luis near what is now Tallahassee. Their cause for canonization as martyrs is ongoing.
1763 - Due to the Treaty of Paris cementing victories won by Britain over Spain during the Seven Years War, an exodus of Spanish Catholics took place during the British occupation of Florida.
1781 - On May 11, Spain captured Pensacola, and the Church’s presence was restored when Father Pedro Velez was sent to minister at the Spanish Garrison. St. Michael Parish was established and has served continuously since that time.
1791- Bishop Cyril of Barcelona visited Pensacola and found 245 Catholics among the 572 residents.
1795-1850 - The territory undergoes a series of transfers from Havana to New Orleans, then back to Havana, then to Louisiana and the Two Floridas and then finally to Mobile. In 1829, Bishop Michael Portier, first bishop of Mobile traveled from Pensacola to St. Augustine and back amid great hardship and hostility, seeking to strengthen the Church across north Florida.
1837 - Bishop Portier established the first parish school and, by 1870, 100 pupils were enrolled at St. Michael Academy.
1845 - Blessed Sacrament Parish is established in Tallahassee.
1850 - All of Florida east of the Apalachicola River was transferred to the jurisdiction of the newly established Diocese of Savannah with Bishop Francis X. Gartland, first bishop. The ten western counties of North Florida remained in the Diocese of Mobile.
1851- St. John Parish was formed in Warrington near the Pensacola Navy Yard and St. Patrick Parish began in Apalachicola. Apalachicola was then a flourishing cotton export center.
1870 - The Diocese of St. Augustine was established and included all of Florida east of the Apalachicola River.
1850-1950 - Several parishes were established during this time period. Small clusters of Catholics were in various parts of the diocese. Access to the sacraments was sporadic in some places. For example, priests came twice a year by boat from St. Michael Parish in Pensacola to Fort Walton Beach and to Panama City. Priests also went from Pensacola to the small communities along what is now Interstate 10. After World War II the area developed and many parishes were established through the middle of the 20th century and beyond.
1968 - In February, Bishop Paul F. Tanner was named seventh bishop of St. Augustine. In June, the Diocese of Miami was raised to Archdiocese and the province of Miami was established to include all of the dioceses of Florida. At the same time, the new Dioceses of St. Petersburg and Orlando were created. The ten counties of northwest Florida, formerly a part of the Diocese of Mobile, were transferred now to the Diocese of St. Augustine.
1975 - The Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee was established on November 6, by dividing the Diocese of Saint Augustine, which consisted of 35 counties. Until May 8, 1968, the ten counties west of the Apalachicola River were part of the Diocese of Mobile while the eight counties east of the river were part of the Saint Augustine Diocese from its establishment in 1870.